Contingency-based options and futures for contingent travel accommodations

ABSTRACT

Disclosed herein is a system for allowing a remote user to purchase, over a distributed computer network (e.g., the Internet), an option for a ticket and/or accommodations for a ‘contingent event”, e.g., an event which is certain to occur but for which the participants, content and/or location(s) are not predetermined. For instance, the subject system can be used to sell options for the purchase of tickets to such contingent events such as playoff games on the basis of what teams qualify, or all-star game.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The advent of computer networks offers geographically distributed usersunprecedented opportunities to interact with each other and to worktogether on content. One of the most widely accepted and heavily usednetworks is the Internet. The Internet is a global system ofinterconnected computer networks formed into a single world widenetwork. A user, through the Internet, can interactively transmitmessages with users in different locations. Similarly, a user in onelocation can connect to files and libraries in other locations. Thus,the Internet provides versatile communications functions and acts like auniversal library, providing electronic access to resources andinformation available from Internet sites throughout the world. Accessto the Internet can be had from a wide range of locations and through awide range of devices. For example, a user with a laptop computer and amodem may connect to the Internet through a telephone jack. WirelessInternet connections are also available.

Electronic commerce has emerged as primary use of the Internet. Theglobal penetration of the Internet provides merchants with thecapability to merchandise their products to substantial shoppingaudiences using an online merchant system. Online merchant systemsenable merchants to creatively display and describe their products toshoppers using Web pages. Merchants can layout and display Web pageshaving content, such as text, pictures, sound and video, using HyperTextMarkup Language (HTML). Web shoppers, in turn, access a merchant's Webpage using a browser, such as Microsoft Explorer or Netscape Navigator,installed on a client connected to the Web through an online serviceprovider, such as the Microsoft Network or America OnLine. The browserinterprets the HTML to format and display the merchant's page for theshopper. The online merchant system likewise enables shoppers to browsethrough a merchant's store to identify products of interest, to obtainspecific product information and to electronically purchase productsafter reviewing product information.

Thus, the Internet is used to assist buyers and sellers in purchasing avariety of traditional goods and services. Novel methods of purchasingand selling have been developed, including cryptographic systems andmethods for assuring authenticity of a signer of a transaction,electronic payment systems, and electronic auction systems and methods.Electronic commerce Internet sites typically allow remotely distributedusers to interact via an Internet site, through which the users executetraditional commercial transactions online. Thus, the Internet typicallyoffers convenience, but does not significantly alter the underlyingtransaction contexts.

However, the present online methods of selling services and goodsgenerally do not account for the presence of uncertainty in the marketfor those goods or services. It is well recognized that a purchaser whopurchases a good or service in advance of its need may be disappointedif the price falls, or if the need for the good or services disappears.A wide range of contingency planning measures are undertaken by buyersand sellers in markets that involve uncertainty. However, the Internetmodels of commerce generally ignore event-driven contingency planningand are therefore, in large part, unsatisfactory where the desire topurchase a good or service are primarily motivated by the outcome of anevent certain in time.

An example of a market involving substantial uncertainty is the marketfor goods and services surrounding a sporting event, especially asporting event in which the presence of particular teams is not knownwell in advance of the time of the event. One such event is the SuperBowl. National Football League Fans are notoriously loyal to particularteams, but the two particular teams that will appear in the Super Bowlare not known until two weeks before the game. A fan of a particularteam may not wish purchase a game ticket, airfare, hotel or otheraccommodations unless his or her team will be in the game; that is, thefan's desire to attend the game is contingent on the outcome of a futureevent(s), namely the progression of a team through the earlier playoffgames. In the present environment, hotels, air carriers and othertransportation providers must often scramble to finalize arrangementsfor goods and 25 services required by a particular group of people, theidentity of which are not known until the occurrence of the contingency,i.e., the presence of a particular pair of teams in the Super Bowl.Moreover, under current business systems, the inability to identifycustomers until only a week or two before the event prevents certainpurveyors from participating in the market in any effective way. Forexample, charter airlines may be significantly disadvantaged where fansneed to be flown to the Super Bowl from cities for which the chartercompany does not have a regular route. For instance, despite the generalability of the charter companies to offer fares lower than commercialair carriers on less than 14 day notice, the ability to book passengerscan be substantially hindered by the inability of the charter topenetrate the advertising market on short notice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed herein are methods and systems for futures and optionspricing, purchasing and selling, for tickets, travel and lodgingaccommodations and other service or good associated with the event. Inaccordance with the present invention, computer networks, such as theInternet, which allows an increasingly large number of purchasers andsellers to participate in electronic markets, may be used to facilitateoptions transactions for tickets to and/or accommodations based on theoccurrence of such contingencies as the participation of a given team orindividual, occurrence of the event at a given location, weatherconditions, or the like. As used herein, except where the context callsfor a particular type of option or futures contract, it should beunderstood that the terms “option” and “future” should be understood toencompass any contract that embodies a contingency, including so-calledAmerican and European options, futures, and other derivative contracts.Depending on the context, a futures contract, where the buyer isrequired to commit to purchase a particular ticket or other particularservices at an advance date if the contingency occurs, may be desired.In other contexts, the buyer may be given a more classic option, wherethe buyer has the opportunity to purchase, or not to purchase, if thecontingency occurs. Methods and systems disclosed herein are intended tooffer complete flexibility as to the nature of the underlyingcontingency, as well as to the nature of the commitment of the buyer topurchase the ticket and/or accommodation.

In an embodiment disclosed herein, the context is the purchase and saleof options to purchase one or more tickets to a sports event based onoccurrence of contingent events, such as the presence of a particularteam in the sporting event.

In an embodiment disclosed herein, the context is the purchase and saleof options to purchase travel accommodations, such as airline tickets orhotel rooms, based on occurrence of contingent events. In an embodiment,disclosed herein, one example of a contingency is the presence of aparticular team in a particular sporting event for which a particularfan's need for travel accommodations to the game will be dependent upon,at least in part, the appearance of a particular team in the event. Inan embodiment, the goods and services are at least one of an eventticket, an airline ticket, a charter airline reservation, a hotelreservation, a rental car reservation, a restaurant reservation, a busticket, and a train ticket.

Provided herein are methods and systems of electronic commerceestablishing a network-based on-line system for purchase and sale of anoption or futures contract to acquire a event tickets and/or travelaccommodations, e.g., airline tickets, to a contingent ticketed event.As used herein, the term “ticket” or “reservation” or “accommodation”,as will be evident from its context, should be understood to encompassinclude any permission, contract, reservation, license, or similarright, or evidence of the same, permitting a person or entity to attendan event (such as a sporting event) and/or utilize a travel service(e.g., airline service, hotel service, etc.) where such permission,contract, license or similar right is limited to those havingreservations.

As used herein a “contingent event” should be understood to be an eventthe occurrence of which is contingent upon occurrence of other factors,including, for example, an event that is certain to occur but for whichthe participants, content and/or location(s) are not predetermined, anevent that is tentatively scheduled, an event that is subject tocancellation or change in the constituents, and the like. A “contingentticketed event” should be understood to encompass contingent events forwhich tickets are required. Examples of contingent ticketed eventsinclude playoff and tournament sporting events. Examples of contingentticketed events include playoff and tournament sporting events, plays,concerts and other performances where presence of particular performersis not known until some period of time after the event is planned,admission tickets to events or venues that are weather-dependent, andmany others.

In an embodiment, the contingent event may be defined by party seekingan option or futures contract. That is, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may establish a marketplace in which a person seekingan options or futures contract may define and post a request, such as ona host Internet site, including a contingency event, a desired good orservice the desire for which is dependent on the contingency and anoffer or bid for an option or futures contract to acquire the goods orservices if the contingency event occurs. Potential providers of thegoods, services, or other items identified in the request could thenrespond by accepting the request or by offering a different price.Similarly, providers of goods and services could identify and postoffers, such as on an Internet site, including a contingency event, agood, service, or other item the supply or demand for which is dependenton the contingency event, and the price at which the seller is willingto enter into a provide the good, service or other item at apredetermined price. Pricing of the option could be varied to provide arange of option prices to obtain a range of goods or services at a rangeof prices. Thus, a general marketplace can be established for permittingusers, including buyers and sellers, to define and negotiate contingencyevent-based options and futures contracts.

Also disclosed herein are methods and systems for allowing a user topurchase an option or futures contract for a ticket to a contingentevent, e.g., a contingent ticketed event, and/or travel accommodationsurrounding that event, including a processor operative with a programto (a) identify tickets (or other forms of reservation) for a contingentevent or an accommodation related thereto; (b) enter bids for an optionor futures contract to purchase the ticket or accommodations; and (c)rank the bids.

In an embodiment, the contingent event may be a participant-event. Asused herein, “participant event” should be understood to encompass acontingent event in which a particular participant participates or iseligible for participation. A “participant” should be understood toinclude any person or entity that can participate in a contingent event;thus, the participant could be a team in a team sports event, an athletein an individual or team sport, an entertainer in a tentativelyscheduled event, or other person or entity. Examples of participantevents include presence of a particular team in a particular round ofplayoffs, presence of a particular athlete in a particular tournament,and the like.

In embodiments of methods and systems disclosed herein, theparticipant-event for which an options or futures contract for ticketsand/or accommodations may be purchased may be a team-game, team-round,or a team-round-game. As used herein, a “team-game” should be understoodto encompass a game in which a particular team participates, and ateam-round-game should be understood to encompass a round of games inwhich a team participates, and a team-round-game should be understood toencompass a particular game of a particular round in which a teamparticipates. An example of a team-round-game would be the presence ofthe Cincinnati Reds in the first game of the National LeagueChampionship Series of the Major League Baseball playoffs.

Also disclosed herein are methods and systems for allowing a user to bidon an option to purchase a ticket or travel accommodations to acontingent ticketed event, including database having stored therein anoption or futures record having a team field representative of aparticipant being a candidate for participation in the contingent event,an event field representative of the sporting event, and a value fieldrepresentative of a value of a minimum winning bid to purchase an optionor future for a ticket or travel accommodation to the event if theparticipant is selected to participate in the event; and a server, inconnection with said database, and capable of processing a bidrepresentative of a request to purchase one or more of said options orfutures, and being capable of processing said bid and said option orfutures record to adjust the minimum winning bid value and to allocatean option or futures contract to the winning bid. As used herein“database” should be understood to encompass any of a variety ofcomputer software, computer hardware, firmware and other productscapable of storing data and records, such as products provided by Oracleand others, including relational and object oriented databases. As usedherein, “server” should be understood to encompass any device or methodcapable of interacting with a client or plurality of clients or similardevices or supporting a network computing environment or providingaccess to computing services, including hardware servers, softwareservers, web servers, HTTP servers, and any other available type ofserver.

Also provided herein are methods and systems for allowing a remote userto purchase, over a distributed computer network, an option or futurescontract for tickets or travel accommodations to a contingent event,e.g., a contingent ticketed event, which system includes a host serveroperative with a program including an event database connected incommunication with said host server, said database includingparticipant-event identifiers each representative of a ticket or travelaccommodation for a contingent participant-event, an option or futuresbid database in communication with said host server, said option orfutures bid database including allocation fields representative of anoption or futures bid for each of said ticket or travel accommodations,and an interface manager implemented on said server and in communicationwith said databases; wherein said interface manager processes option orfutures bids from remote users to determine whether to accept the optionor futures bid and to update the allocation field.

As used herein, “network” should be understood to include the Internet,worldwide web, wide area networks, local area networks, Intranets,Extranets, telephone networks, cellular networks, and other connectionscapable of supporting communications, file transfers, and otherfunctions over distance.

As used herein, “identifier” should be understood to comprise anyindicator, identifier, record, or combination of the same that iscapable of embodying or representing a data record and may include thecapability of identifying a location in computer memory as well as dataallocated to particular data fields. Systems and methods disclosedherein may include contingent event identifiers for records relating toparticular events, including participant-event identifiers for recordsrelating to participant-events, athlete-game identifiers for recordsrelating to the presence of an athlete in a game, entertainer eventidentifiers for records relating to the presence of an entertainer in acontingent event, and the like.

Systems and methods disclosed herein allow a user to purchase an optionor futures contract for goods or services related to a contingent event,comprising a processor operative with a program to identify goods orservices related to a contingent event; enter bids for an option orfutures contract to purchase the goods or services; and rank the bids.

The goods or services may be a wide range of goods and services relatedto the existence of the contingent event, such as, in the case of asporting event ticket, an airline ticket, a charter airline reservation,a hotel reservation, a rental car reservation, a restaurant reservation,a bus ticket, a train ticket, and a ticket or reservation to anattraction in the locale of the contingent ticketed event. Thus, userscan purchases packages of goods and services based on the occurrence ofthe contingencies that give rise to a particular contingent event. Asimilar suite of goods and services may surround other contingentevents.

In an embodiment, the contingent event may be defined by party seekingan option or futures contract. That is, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may establish a marketplace in which a person seekingan options or futures contract may define and post a request, such as ona host Internet site, including a contingency event, a desired good orservice the desire for which is dependent on the contingency and anoffer or bid for an option or futures contract to acquire the goods orservices if the contingency event occurs. Potential providers of thegoods, services, or other items identified in the request could thenrespond by accepting the request or by offering a different price.Similarly, providers of goods and services could identify and postoffers, such as on an Internet site, including a contingency event, agood, service, or other item the supply or demand for which is dependenton the contingency event, and the price at which the seller is willingto enter into a provide the good, service or other item at apredetermined price. Pricing of the option could be varied to provide arange of option prices to obtain a range of goods or services at a rangeof prices. Thus, a general marketplace can be established for permittingusers, including buyers and sellers, to define and negotiate contingencyevent-based options and futures contracts.

Also, once systems and methods are established whereby an option orfuture may be defined, offered and sold, the same systems and methodscan be used as a secondary marketplace for the options or futures, aswell as for the underlying goods, services, information and other itemsto which the options and futures relate. An option or futures contractfor a contingent event ticket would have a different value, depending onthe probability of the contingent event's actually occurring. Forexample, if a particular team loses a game, then the probability of thatteam's making the playoffs is reduced, thus reducing the value of theoption or futures contract for a ticket to that game involving thatteam. As the values diminish, optionholders may be willing to sell theoptions to recover some of the original purchase price. Similarly,others may be willing to buy at a lower price. Thus, a marketplace canbe established where purchasers and sellers trade in options that arebased on contingent events. Trading can be expected in any case wherethere are marketplace events that change the value of options; i.e.,events that change the likelihood of a contingency emerging. Wherecontingencies emerge after a chain of many related marketplace events(such as the progression of a sports season), an active marketplace canbe established for the trading of options and futures contracts based onthe events.

Once a marketplace is established, it is possible to establish anotherlevel of options, futures or other derivative securities. Thus, for eachtype of options or futures contract described herein, there can existstill another class of options and futures contracts to acquire theoptions or futures. Thus, while there may only be a fixed number ofavailable tickets, and only a fixed number of options can actuallyresult in delivery of the ticket, a far larger number of individuals maypurchase and sell options than can actually provide or take delivery onthe tickets. Individuals who have a delivery obligation, but cannotultimately deliver tickets, will be required to “cover,” by paying thepurchasers the value of the promised options (as measured, for example,by the trading price of an option or futures contract as of a fixeddate). Thus, as in trading markets for commodities, many more optionsand futures are traded than underlying commodities are delivered.Additional levels of “options on options” could be envisioned and areencompassed by the present disclosure.

A wide variety of possible contingent event-based options and futures,related secondary markets, and options on options can be enabled bysystems and methods disclosed herein. The following examples areintended to illustrate some examples of contingent events on which suchoptions and markets can be based, but are by no means exhaustive. Otherembodiments evident to those of ordinary skill in the art are intendedto be encompassed by the present disclosure.

A contingency event may be any event that is expected to occur, but theoutcome of which is unpredictable.

In one embodiment of the invention, the contingency event is related toweather. It can be predicted that weather will be relevant to a widerange of goods, services, and activities, but the weather itself cannotbe predicted with a high range of long-term accuracy. Thus, a buyer 102could purchase an option or futures contract for delivery of aweather-dependent good or service, with the purchase contingent upon theoccurrence of a measurable weather event at a given time.Weather-dependent goods and services that could be made the subject ofweather-contingent options and futures contracts include, but are notlimited to air travel, skiing, weddings, parties, concerts, sportsevents, vacation packages, hotel reservations, all outdoor events andactivities, hiking, camping, golf, surfing, swimming, amusement parkattendance, and many others. Thus, for example, a purchaser couldpurchase an option to purchase a vacation package to a Carribean island,contingent on the absence of any hurricanes in the Atlantic ocean oneweek before the date of departure. Similarly, a skier could purchase anoption to have a hotel room and lift ticket at a given price, if thereis a predetermined minimum amount of snow on the selected mountain agiven number of days before the date of the ski trip. The options wouldallow buyers to purchase with diminished uncertainty, while sellerswould have advance notice of potential demand. As with sports eventoptions described above, the advance notice would permit planning,marketing of related goods and services, and, in some cases, the sale ofmultiple options for the same good or services. For example, manyindividuals are highly interested in bad weather. For example, a weatherexpert, newsperson, or weather buff might have a strong desire to havethe opportunity to observe a hurricane close hand, while a vacationermight have no desire to vacation during the same storm. Thus, an optionor futures contract for a travel package could be sold to each of them,with the former getting the package if a hurricane was identified asbeing within a given distance from the location at a given time, and thelatter getting the package otherwise. Similarly, many non-skiattractions have arising around ski resorts, such as outlet shopping,family entertainment complexes and the like. However, during the peakseason, price rise, and non-skiers typically avoid these locations. Ifthere is no snow, there is substantial unused capacity at a given time.In order to help fill the unused capacity, options and futures contractscan be established to permit one person (presumably a skier) to have ahotel room, dinner reservation, or the like if there is a predeterminedamount of snow and to permit another person (presumably a non-skier) tohave the same item (presumably at a “non-peak” price) if there is lessthan the predetermined amount of snow. In other words, the systems andmethods enable vendors to offer the same item to different individuals,depending on different tastes for weather-related goods and services.Weather related options and futures contracts would be particularlyeffective in booking off-peak times, such as early and late seasonskiing, golf, beach vacations, and the like. Thus, vendors couldidentify interested parties who would commit to purchase a package ofitems if the weather, as of a given date, is appropriate for theparticular activity. For example, a skier could commit to a ski packagein October or May, which would be contingent on the presence of snow.Knowing the skier might arrive, the vendor could target advertising fora host of related products and services, even if the skier doesn't endup purchasing the package.

In other embodiments, the contingent event may consist of a blending ofone or more contingencies, including any of the contingencies identifiedherein. Thus, for example, skier might purchase an option to acquire ahotel room and lift ticket on a particular mountain in May, if there isadequate snow, and if the price is lower than a predetermined amount.

In other embodiments, the contingency may be the unavailability orlimited availability of a particular good or service. Thus, a user mightpurchase an option of futures contract to purchase a good, service, orother item if that item is sold out in the user's area, or if the priceof the good in that area exceeds a predetermined price. Such a contractcould identify a particular good or suite of goods of a given type.Examples might include popular toys, CDs, and other consumer items. Forexample, a buyer might purchase an option to acquire a particular item(or any of a group of items) offered by a major toy store, if the itemor one of the items is sold out on December 20 of a given year.Similarly, a buyer could purchase an option to purchase tickets to aparticular event, if the event is sold out. A buyer could purchase anoption to acquire services, if the market rate for the services exceedsa certain rate, or if there are no individuals offering the services ata given time. The services could be a wide range of services, such asprofessional services, contracting services, legal services, accountingservices, consulting services, plumbing services, development services,design services, engineering services and the like.

More generally, contingency events may include any events wheredifferent outcomes are possible, and where different purchasers arecapable of benefiting from the different outcomes. Thus, any goods orservices where buyer tastes vary depending on the outcome, such asweather, sporting events, performances, and the like.

In another embodiment, the contingency event may be the popularity of aparticular item. For example, television programs are rated according tonumber of households and percentage of viewing households for eachprogram. Those ratings reflect the popularity of a particular program.Whether a particular program has a particular popularity rating can be acontingency event upon which an option to purchase advertising time orspace is based. Similar options and futures can be established foradvertising in periodicals and books based on the circulation of thesame. Similar options and futures can be established for Internet space.Since demographic information is often made available, options andfutures can be established where the contingency event is theestablishment of a particular rating in a particular demographic. Thus,for example, an advertiser could purchase air time at a given price andtime if a particular television show has achieved an average of a twentypercent audience share among women aged twenty to thirty. As with otherembodiments, a secondary market can be established, with marketinformation arising each time ratings are announced, encouraging tradingof options based on the ratings. Also, secondary services and goods canbe targeted to particular advertisers, based on what they are seeking toadvertise.

The methods and systems established herein can also be used to establishoptions and futures for non-traditional goods and services, where afuture need is known and the buyer wishes to lock in the current price.Any goods or services can be covered, ranging from appliances, to homerepairs, to fixtures, to automobiles, to concert tickets, toautomobiles, to antiques, to collectibles, to used cars, to computers,to real estate, and many others.

Also, once systems and methods are established whereby an option orfuture may be defined, offered and sold, the same systems and methodscan be used as a secondary marketplace for the options or futures, aswell as for the underlying goods, services, information and other itemsto which the options and futures relate.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 depicts a schematic of the entities involved in an embodiment ofa methods and systems disclosed herein.

FIG. 2 depicts a host system of an embodiment of the methods and systemsdisclosed herein.

FIG. 3 depicts an embodiment of a buyer's device for using an embodimentof the methods and systems disclosed herein to purchase an option topurchase a ticket to an event.

FIG. 4 is a schematic depiction of a round of the National FootballLeague playoffs.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart illustrating steps involved in accepting andranking a bid for an option or futures contract for a sporting eventticket or related good or service.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating steps for allocating options andfutures according to an auction format in accordance with an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a database structure for anembodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a table for storing andranking bids in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating providers of goods andservices that are related to the existence of a sporting event involvinga particular team.

FIG. 10 is illustrates the structure of a dynamic page generator inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed herein is a system for allowing a remote user to purchase,over a distributed computer network (e.g., the Internet), an option topurchase a ticket, goods or services, or other item that is based on acontingent event, e.g., an event which is certain to occur but for whichthe participants, content and/or location(s) are not predetermined. Forinstance, the subject system can be used to sell options for thepurchase of tickets or accommodations for such contingent sports eventssuch as playoff games on the basis of what teams qualify, or who mayappear in an all-star game. In general, the system comprises a hostserver operative with a program including: (i) an event databaseconnected in communication with said host server, said databaseincluding contingent event identifiers, such as team-round-gameidentifiers, each identifier being representative of an ticket or othergood or service for a contingent sporting event within a range ofpossible sporting events, (ii) an option bid database in communicationwith said host server, said option bid database including allocationfields representative of an option bid for each of the tickets, goods orservices to be made available upon occurrence of a contingency, and(iii) an interface manager implemented on said server and incommunication with said databases, wherein said interface managerprocesses option bids from remote users to determine whether to acceptthe option bid and to update the allocation field.

Referring to FIG. 1, the entities involved in an embodiment of a methodand system disclosed herein are depicted in schematic format. In asystem 100, a plurality of buyers 102, a provider 108 and a host 104 areconnected via a network 110. It should be understood that any number ofbuyers 102, hosts 104, and providers 108 could participate in such asystem 100. In an embodiment, the network 110 may be a wide areacomputer network, such as the Internet.

To further illustrate, an example of a client-server systeminterconnected through the Internet 100. In this example, a remoteserver system is interconnected through the Internet to client system.The buyer system 102 can include conventional components of a clientsystem, such as a processor, memory (e.g. RAM), a bus which couples theprocessor and memory, a mass storage device (e.g. a magnetic hard diskor an optical storage disk) coupled to the processor and memory throughan I/O controller and a network interface, such as a conventional modem.The server system can also include conventional components such as aprocessor, memory (e.g. RAM), a bus which couples the processor andmemory, a mass storage device (e.g. a magnetic or optical disk) coupledto the processor and memory through an I/O controller and a networkinterface, such as a conventional modem. It will be appreciated from thedescription below that the present invention may be implemented insoftware which is stored as executable instructions on a computerreadable medium on the client and server systems, such as mass storagedevices, or in memories.

In an exemplary embodiment, a browser, residing on the computer of buyer102, displays a home page retrieved from the World Wide Web on a viewingdevice, e.g., a screen. A user can view this page by entering, orselecting a link to, a Universal Resource Locator (URL), such as“www.playoffquest.com”, in a browser program, such as Microsoft Exploreror Netscape Navigator, executing on the buyer's computer. Note that thesubject online system 100 may reside in a server or in a combination ofservers.

Focusing now on the network 110, the presently preferred network is theInternet. The structure of the Internet is well known to those ofordinary skill in the art and includes a network backbone with networksbranching from the backbone. These branches, in turn, have networksbranching from them, and so on. For a more detailed description of thestructure and operation of the Internet, please refer to “The InternetComplete Reference,” by Harley Hahn and Rick Stout, published byMcGraw-Hill, 1994. However, one may practice the present invention on awide variety of communication networks. For example, the network 104 caninclude interactive television networks, telephone networks, wirelessdata transmission systems, two-way cable systems, customized computernetworks, interactive kiosk networks and automatic teller machinenetworks.

In addition, the network 110 can include online service providers, suchas Microsoft Network, America OnLine, Prodigy and CompuServe. In apreferred embodiment, the online service provider is a computer systemwhich provides Internet access to a buyer 102. Of course, the onlineservice providers are optional, and in some cases, the buyers 102 mayhave direct access to the Internet.

In its present deployment, the Internet consists of a worldwide computernetwork that communicates using well defined protocol known as theInternet Protocol (IP). Computer systems that are directly connected tothe Internet each have an unique Internet address. An Internet addressconsists of four numbers where each number is less than 256. The fournumbers of an Internet address are commonly written out separated byperiods such as 192.101.0.3. To simplify Internet addressing, the“Domain Name System” was created. The domain name system allows users toaccess Internet resources with a simpler alphanumeric naming system. AnInternet Domain name consists of a series of alphanumeric namesseparated by periods. For example, the name “www.optionbid.com”corresponds to an Internet address. When a domain name is used, thecomputer accesses a “Domain Name Server” to obtain the explicit fournumber Internet address.

To further define the addresses of resources on the Internet, theUniform Resource Locator system was created. A Uniform Resource Locator(URL) is a descriptor that specifically defines a type of Internetresource and its location. URLs have the following format:

resource-type://domain.address/path-name

where “resource-type” defines the type of Internet resource. Webdocuments are identified by the resource type “HTTP” which indicatesthat the hypertext transfer protocol should be used to access thedocument. Other resource types include “ftp” (file transmissionprotocol) and “telnet”. The “domain.address” defines the domain nameaddress of the computer that the resource is located on. Finally, the“path-name” defines a directory path within the file system of theserver that identifies the resource.

To access an initial Web document, the user enters the URL for a Webdocument into a Web browser program. The Web browser then sends an HTTPrequest to the server that has the Web document using the URL. The Webserver responds to the HTTP request by sending the requested HTTP objectto the client. In most cases, the HTTP object is an plain text (ASCII)document containing text (in ASCII) that is written in HyperText MarkupLanguage (HTML). The HTML document usually contains hyperlinks to otherWeb documents. The Web browser displays the HTML document on the screenfor the user and the hyperlinks to other Web documents are emphasized insome fashion such that the user can selected the hyperlink.

Focusing now on the buyer 102, the buyer system may be a general purposecomputer. In a preferred embodiment, the buyer 102 is equipped with aconventional personal computer equipped with an operating systemsupporting Internet communication protocols, such as Microsoft Windows95 and Microsoft Windows NT, a browser, such as Microsoft Explorer orNetscape Navigator, to access the present system and a modem, wirelessconnection (such as infrared link or satellite dish) or other mechanismfor access to the network 110. In other embodiments, the buyer 102could, for example, be a computer workstation, a local area network ofcomputers, an interactive television, an interactive kiosk, a personaldigital assistant, an interactive wireless communications device or thelike which can interact with the network. While the operating systemsmay differ in such systems, they will continue to provide theappropriate communications protocols needed to establish communicationlinks with the network 110.

Referring to FIG. 2, the host 104 may include a server 112 whichcommunicates with one or more databases 114. The server 112 may be anHTTP server or other server capable of a communication connection, suchas a connection to the Internet. In such embodiments, the server 112 caninclude a dynamic page generator, HTML structures, a database module, anaction manager, and an order processing module having an order engine,an order pipeline, and components for various purposes, such ascalculating sales tax and shipping/handling fees. The dynamic pagegenerator can use, e.g., HTML structures and communicates with thedatabase module to access data from the database(s) to format anddisplay on the buyer's browser. The order processing module communicateswith the dynamic page generator and the database module to create Webpages having product information, e.g., ticket option data, for displayon a buyer 102. Similarly, the order processing module communicates withthe auction manager and the database module as needed to executepurchasing transactions for the ticket options. Lastly, the orderprocessing module can includes various components, that is, a pluralityof application programs to enhance and administer the system. Forexample, the components can include applications to interface withcommercial banking systems, to calculate shipping/handling, to determineapplicable taxes and to post payments to various bank accounts.

The server 112 may include conventional computer components, such as anoperating system 118, which may execute a variety of applicationprograms 120. The server 112 may include memory 122 and a communicationsdevice 124, such as a modem or network interface card. Thecommunications device 124 may provide a communications connection 128for connection to the network 110 of FIG. 1 The host 104 may, in anembodiment, host a site on the Internet or other computer network. Thehost 104 may thus execute various conventional computing functions, suchas data processing and file storage, manipulation and retrieval. Theserver 112 may access the database 114, which may be internal to theserver 112 or may be a separate database. The database 114 may be at aremote location from the server 112 or may be at the same location asthe server 112. In a preferred embodiment, the database(s) 114 comprisesdata stored locally in one or more storage devices, such as a magneticdisk drive or an optical disk drive. In another preferred embodiment,the database(s) 114 comprises data distributed across a local areanetwork (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). For example, the database114 might be a third party database that is accessed by the server 112through the network 110 or through another communications connection,such as a dedicated line. The database(s) 114 may include query data,ticket information, order information, buyer information, receipts dataand the like.

In an embodiment, the server 112 hosts a web site, in which case theserver 112 could include application programs 120 capable of enabling abuyer 102 to interact with the server 112 through a web browser orsimilar application, via the network 110.

In certain preferred embodiments, the system uses templates, directivesand actions to dynamically respond to buyer's bids or requests.Templates, which include directives and actions, can be located in theHTML structures. In response to browser requests, the dynamic pagegenerator composes HTML pages dynamically from templates stored in theHTML structures. In a preferred embodiment, the buyer 102 invokes thedynamic page generator by selecting a URL. The system interprets the URLby analyzing its constituents to identify a template and its arguments.Thus, an “HTTP://” portion of the URL specifies use of the HyperTextTransfer Protocol (HTTP) for communication across the Internet.

A template defines the appearance of a page. Templates include HTML anddirectives, which are keywords to the dynamic page generator specifyinghow to build a page for display, such as what data to insert into thepage and what queries to run against the database to obtain data fordisplay on the page. A template may also include a wide variety ofcontent, such as ActiveX controls, Visual Basic Scripts, forms, images,video and sound.

In a preferred embodiment, the system includes several predefinedtemplates in the HTML structures. For example, a “welcome.html” pageserves as a logon page for consumers. Similarly, a “register.html” pageprovides a form for a new consumer to enter registration information. An“update.html” page likewise provides a form for consumers to updatetheir registration information. A “purchase.html” page presents theorder total and provides a form for entry of credit card paymentinformation. To confirm purchases, a “confirmed.html” page presents amessage confirming completion of the purchase transaction. Similarly, a“receipt.html” page presents a summary of the order in the form of anonline checkout receipt. In addition, a “detail.html” page presents adetailed line item receipt for options ordered.

To perform various system operations, the system uses actions. Forexample, actions can add an item to an order form, clear an order from,and initiate a bid for options or futures for tickets, goods, services,information or other items associated with a contingent event, from thedatabase. An action is a routine to perform specific functions. Actionshave return values that control the display of results to a buyer 102 orother operator. Similarly, actions take arguments that control theirbehavior. Some actions generate errors when they receive incorrectarguments while other actions process and validate the arguments theyreceive. Many action arguments have default values to use when no valuesare specified. After execution of an action and its resulting systemoperation, the action may cause display of an HTML page havinginformation, such as confirmation information or error informationresulting from execution of the action, or the action may redirect thebuyer 102 to a new HTML page.

During a session, the buyer 102 sends requests, e.g., embedded in URLaddresses, to the system. The system responds to these embedded requestswith HTML documents. The HTML documents may contain, for example,registration information, product offerings, promotional advertisements,orders, bids, requests and receipts. The page generator composes theHTML documents sent to the buyer 102. The system provides a set of HTMLpages dynamically generated from queries to a database having storeinformation, such as inventory data for various contingent events, suchas ticket inventory and prices, advertising copy, pricing, customerinformation, promotions or the like.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a dynamic page generator 304. In apreferred embodiment, the dynamic page generator 304 includes a pageprocessor 308 and a query module 310. The page processor 304 retrievesand parses a template from the HTML structures 302 to form an HTML pagefor display on the browser 306, e.g., of a user 102. In parsing the HTMLtemplate, the page processor 308 communicates with the query module 310as needed to extract and format information from the database(s) 312 todisplay on the browser 306. For example, the template can provide aquery, such as the name of a team or other contingency event, or a bidprice for a specified option or the like, to the query module 310. Thequery module 310 then passes this query to the database module 312. Inthe instance where the query is a participant name or contingent eventname, the database module 312 uses the query to retrieve informationrelated to query from associated databases 314 and then passes thatquery to the database module 312 for execution. In embodiments whereinthe query is a bid for a specified option, the database module 312retrieves from associated databases 314 (such as an option bid database)information related to other bids for the specified option, and thenpasses that information to the database module 312 for execution. Inthat embodiment, the database module 312, or other sub-system of thepresent system, can compare the queried option bid to returned data fromthe option bid database to determine if the bid should be accepted. In apreferred embodiment, the database 314 is a relational database thatprocesses queries in the SQL data sublanguage. The database 314 in turnexecutes the query and returns the query results to the database module312 to produce an access object having the query results. The databasemodule 312 returns the access object having the query results to thequery module 310. The page processor 308 obtains the access object fromthe query module 310 and processes the access object to extract andformat the query data to prepare HTML for display on the browser 306.

The present system may also include a financial transaction settlementsub-system. The financial transaction settlement sub-system processesvarious modes of payment for accepted options, e.g., includingprocessing credit card authorization requests, debit card purchaserequests, electronic money (“e-money”) requests, or other such financialtransaction request. For example, the financial transaction settlementsub-system may represent commercially available credit card processinginstitutions.

Referring to FIG. 3, in an embodiment, the server 112 hosts a web sitethat enables buyers 102 to purchase options to purchase tickets tocontingent events, such as contingent sports events. Buyers 102 mayinteract with the site via a buyer device 154, which may be any devicecapable of an Internet connection, such as a personal or laptop computerrunning a web browser application, such as Netscape Navigator, MicrosoftExplorer, or the like. The buyer device 154 may include a graphical userinterface 130, which appears on the screen of the buyer device 154 andthrough which the buyer 102 may interact with the site. In anembodiment, the buyer device 154 permits the user to enter informationrelating to a sports event for which the buyer 102 wishes to purchase anoption to purchase one or more tickets. The information may be enteredby the buyer 102 in any conventional data processing format. In theembodiment of FIG. 3, the user may enter the information via a template132, which may be an HTML template, JAVA applet, or other conventionalmechanism for permitting user entry. The entry of the data could be viapull-down menus, clicking on a series of icons, or other mechanism. Thebuyer-entered information may vary, depending on the sporting event, asdescribed below.

In an exemplary embodiment, the buyer may enter information relating toa series of fields 134, 138, 140, 142. Each field 134, 138, 140, 142 maycorrespond to data stored in the database(s) 112 of FIG. 1. The buyermay enter data for each field in a series of template fields 152, eachcorresponding to one of the fields 134, 138, 140, 142. The buyer maytype in an entry in the template field 152, or may select from availablechoices via a pull-down arrow or menu 150 for each field. Clicking thepull-down arrow, in a conventional manner, would result in the displayof a list of available options in a list. The buyer 102 could thus enterthe buyer's name in the template field 152 corresponding to the namefield 134. The buyer 102 could select a contingent event, in this case asports event, in the template field 152 corresponding to the sport field140. The buyer 102 could select a particular team for the team field138. The buyer could then select a particular event for the event field142.

In the case of a sporting event, the event field could offer choices ofspecific games, specific rounds, or specific combinations of rounds andgames. Thus, through use of the menus or other entry means, the buyercould identify a potential game for which the buyer may want a ticket ortravel accommodation, linked to the presence of the buyer's team in thegame. For example, a buyer could select an option to purchase a ticketfor a first round NFL playoff game in which the Denver Broncos play. Theoption to purchase the ticket could mature in an event-driven manner. Inparticular, the option could be made exercisable only if the selectedteam appeared in the selected game.

The option may also include, or be for, an event requiring travel. Incertain embodiments, the airfare may be calculated in advance, such thatthe cost is identified to the buyer in advance, e.g., as an entry in aweb-page of the site. In other embodiments, the buyer may specify thatthe option is also contingent on the airfare being less than a certainamount.

Depending on the sport, a wide range of events or combinations of eventscould serve as triggers for exercisability of an option for tickets,transportation or other accommodation. Examples of events would includepresence of a buyer's selected team in a game, presence of a particularpair of teams in a game, presence of a team or combination of teams in agame having a predetermined proximity to the buyer, existence of a gameinvolving a particular team or combination of teams occurring on aspecific date, and the like. It should be understood that while thepresent disclosure refers to the presence of a particular team in aparticular game as the primary contingency upon which an option orfuture may be based, other contingency events can be envisioned. Forexample, a fan's loyalty may be to a particular player, rather than to aparticular team. In that case, a fan could purchase an option for aticket to a particular game if that player was to appear in the game.Such an option might be appropriate for ticket and accommodations attournaments in individual sports, such as tennis and match-play golf,and for all-star or all-pro games in other sports, such as baseball,football, basketball, soccer and hockey. Thus, for example, a buyer 102could purchase an option to have a ticket to the women's U.S. Openfinal, if the match involves Monica Seles, or a ticket to the baseballAll-Star game, if Pedro Martinez is an All-Star.

In still another embodiment, the option for tickets, travel and/or hotelaccommodations may be contingent upon availability of resources, weatheror any other condition which may effect the desirability to travel tothe location.

In one embodiment of the invention, the contingency event is related toweather. It can be predicted that weather will be relevant to a widerange of goods, services, and activities, but the weather itself cannotbe predicted with a high range of long-term accuracy. Thus, a buyer 102could purchase an option or futures contract for delivery of aweather-dependent good or service, with the purchase contingent upon theoccurrence of a measurable weather event at a given time.Weather-dependent goods and services that could be made the subject ofweather-contingent options and futures contracts include, but are notlimited to air travel, skiing, weddings, parties, concerts, sportsevents, vacation packages, hotel reservations, all outdoor events andactivities, hiking, camping, golf, surfing, swimming, amusement parkattendance, and many others.

Thus, for example, travel or ski packages (travel, hotel, lift tickets,etc) for spring skiing trips may be optioned based on snow base for aresort for a particular time of the year, e.g., the buyer may wish totravel to a ski resort in the month of May if there is at least acertain number of trails open, a certain minimal snow base (e.g., apre-determined minimum amount of snow on the selected mountain a givennumber of days before the date of the ski trip), or other objectivecriteria for determining when, if at all, the option is exercisable.Likewise, a buyer could purchase an option to purchase a vacationpackage to a Carribean island, contingent on the absence of anyhurricanes in the Atlantic ocean one week before the date of departure.

The options would allow buyers to purchase with diminished uncertainty,while sellers would have advance notice of potential demand. As withsports event options described above, the advance notice would permitplanning, marketing of related goods and services, and, in some cases,the sale of multiple options for the same good or services. For example,many individuals are highly interested in bad weather. For example, aweather expert, newsperson, or weather buff might have a strong desireto have the opportunity to observe a hurricane close hand, while avacationer might have no desire to vacation during the same storm. Thus,an option or futures contract for a travel package could be sold to eachof them, with the former getting the package if a hurricane wasidentified as being within a given distance from the location at a giventime, and the latter getting the package otherwise. Similarly, manynon-ski attractions have arising around ski resorts, such as outletshopping, family entertainment complexes and the like. However, duringthe peak season, price rise, and non-skiers typically avoid theselocations. If there is no snow, there is substantial unused capacity ata given time. In order to help fill the unused capacity, options andfutures contracts can be established to permit one person (presumably askier) to have a hotel room, dinner reservation, or the like if there isa predetermined amount of snow and to permit another person (presumablya non-skier) to have the same item (presumably at a “non-peak” price) ifthere is less than the predetermined amount of snow. In other words, thesystems and methods enable vendors to offer the same item to differentindividuals, depending on different tastes for weather-related goods andservices. Weather related options and futures contracts would beparticularly effective in booking off-peak times, such as early and lateseason skiing, golf, beach vacations, and the like. Thus, vendors couldidentify interested parties who would commit to purchase a package ofitems if the weather, as of a given date, is appropriate for theparticular activity. For example, a skier could commit to a ski packagein October or May, which would be contingent on the presence of snow.Knowing the skier might arrive, the vendor could target advertising fora host of related products and services, even if the skier doesn't endup purchasing the package.

In other embodiments, the contingent event may consist of a blending ofone or more contingencies, including any of the contingencies identifiedherein. Thus, for example, a skier might purchase an option to acquire ahotel room and lift ticket on a particular mountain in May, if there isadequate snow, and if the price is lower than a predetermined amount.

The available options may be subject to constraints, which may beparticular to, e.g., the sport or other event underlying the desire ofthe buyer to the option. For example, a buyer could not purchase anoption for a ticket for an American Football Conference playoff gameinvolving the Green Bay Packers, because the Green Bay Packers are inthe National Football Conference, not the American Football Conference.Another constraint may be the number of options, such as the number ofguaranteed tickets that the host can deliver.

In certain preferred embodiments where the host has limited number oftickets or hotel accommodations available, the host will not permit thepurchase of more options than can be actually be delivered by the host,assuming any possible combination of events occurs. For example, if hosthas contracted for 4000 tickets to the Super Bowl, the host willpreferably not sell options that would result in a commitment to sellmore than 4000 Super Bowl tickets. In this simple scenario, optionscould be made exercisable based only on the presence of a buyer'sdesignated team in the Super Bowl. In one embodiment, if the host iscapable of delivering N tickets to a play-off game, the host can sellN/2 options to buyers designating each team that can appear in the game.Thus, if the host is capable of delivering 4000 tickets to the SuperBowl, then the host can sell options to purchase up to 2000 tickets tobuyers designating each particular team. Of course, in anotherembodiment, all 4000 tickets could be optioned to every team, and the4000 highest bids from amongst all the buyers (e.g., all 8000 optionholders) for both teams making the Super Bowl are selected.

It should be understood that the number of tickets the host is capableof delivering may be constrained not only by the number of seats in thestadium or on a plane, but by other factors, such as the ability of thehost to obtain the tickets for delivery.

In a preferred embodiment, the host may obtain pre-commitments fortickets for a given number of seats, N. A conservative approach would beto sell options to purchase N/2 seats to buyers designating eachparticular team for appearance in the game. One of the benefits of thesystem to the host and to providers of tickets may be observed, which isthat in addition to ultimately selling N tickets to the game, the hostand provider sell up to a number of options equal to (N/2) times thenumber of teams.

Additional event combinations and option triggers can be employed inscenarios that are more complicated than sale of options to purchaseoptions to a single game. For example, a buyer may wish to have ticketsto a game in a particular round of playoffs, if the buyer's designatedteam is in that round, although it may be impossible to know in advancethe location of the game. Referring to FIG. 4, a schematic diagram 158depicts the National Football League playoff format. It should beunderstood that variations in format can be accommodated by the systemsand methods disclosed herein, and that the systems and methods are notlimited to a particular sport or tournament format. The playoffs aredivided into a number of rounds, including a wild card round 160, asecond round 162, a conference championship round 164 and the Super Bowl168. There are two conferences, the American Football Conference, of AFC170, and the National Football Conference, of NFC 172. Each conference170, 172 has the wild card round 160, the second round 162 and theconference championship 164. The winner of each single game in eachround advances to the next round. Although the playoffs are depicted ashaving a predetermined path of games, in fact the matching of teams forthe games for the second round 162 are determined in part based on theresults in the wild card round 160. Among other things, the NFL seeksnot to match teams from the same division in the second round 162, wherepossible.

Each of the rounds 160, 162, 164 can be divided into a set of games. Thewild card round 160 has two AFC conference games 174, 176 and two NFCconference wild card games 178, 180. Each of the games can be given aunique identifier, or the games can be grouped together as “AFC roundone” and NFC round one” games. Thus, a buyer could, in advance, purchasean option for a ticket to a wild card round game, if the buyer's teamappears in the wild card round. Allocation of options for rounds, ratherthan a single game, introduces additional complexity to the allocationscheme. The host or provider must determine not only the number ofoptions that it has to sell for the round, but also the differentcombinations of teams that could appear in the round and the differentlocations that could host games. A variety of conservative approacheswould permit allocation of options in a manner that would not result ina conflict. The most conservative approach would be to treat each optionas, e.g., a committed ticket. This would still offer benefits, becausenot all options would likely be exercised, given the actual teams thatmake it to the wild card round, but the benefits would be much lowerthan a system that allows multiple options for the same ticket. Anotherapproach would be to sell options for N/2 seats to buyers from eachteam, where N is equal to the smallest number of committed tickets thatthe host has from any of the games in the round. In situations such asthe NFL, the two conferences could be treated separately, since a teamfrom one conference would not make the playoffs for the otherconference. A similar approach could be taken with each round.

To give effect to the type of option just described, the concept of ateam-round identifier can be introduced. Thus, an option can be madeexercisable based on the presence of a given team in a given round, andallocations can be made based on the possible combinations of teams inthe games of the round.

In another embodiment, options to purchase tickets could be sold forhome games of the buyer's designated team. This would avoid thecomplication of having to limit sales to half of the number of ticketsfor each team, which could result in one team's options selling out, butthe other team's options remaining largely unsold. A team-round-homegame identifier can be introduced. The option would be exercisable basedon existence of a home game for a designated team in a particular roundof playoffs. Option allocations could be made based on the possiblecombinations of teams appearing in a particular team's home games.

In another embodiment, buyers could purchase options for a particularteam's appearance in a particular round at a particular location or setof locations. Adding a location element would be more complicated thanthe scenario in which only home game options are sold, but it wouldoffer more flexibility to the buyer. A team-round-location identifiercan be introduced, based on which options would be exercisable if a teamappears in a specified round in a specified location or locations.Allocation of options could be made based on possible combinations ofteams in a given round at given locations.

In another embodiment, options to purchase travel accommodations couldbe sold only for away games of the buyer's designated team.

It should be understood that the systems and methods disclosed hereinare not limited to a particular type of contingent event or sport. Byway of example, and without limitation, the systems and methods could beused to sell options to National Basketball League games, NationalHockey League games, Major League Soccer games, Major League Baseballgames, soccer games from leagues throughout the world, games for soccercups and tournaments, such as the World Cup, FA Cup, European Cup, MLSCup, and the like, college sports, such as the Men's and Women's NCAAbasketball playoffs, tennis and golf tournaments, and other events.

In situations such as the NBA playoffs, an additional complication isintroduced in that multiple games appear in each round. The first roundof playoffs is a best-of-five series, and the other rounds arebest-of-seven series. Thus, in place of a team-round identifier, ateam-round-game identifier can be introduced, permitting the buyer topurchase an option, for example, to have guaranteed tickets and/orairfare to attend a game involving the Los Angeles Lakers in the seventhgame of the NBA finals. The option would be triggered based on thepresence of the existence of the identified game, in the identifiedround, with the identified team. The allocation would, as in otherembodiments, be based on the possible combinations of teams, rounds andgames. As in other embodiments, an option purchase could be madeavailable that is limited to home or away games, and then to games inlocations within a given proximity of the user.

It should be understood that the sale of options is not necessarilylimited to playoff games. In fact, some of the benefits of the systemsand methods disclosed herein can be obtained with any game where thedesirability to attend varies over time. For example, a late-seasonbaseball game between the Red Sox and Yankees would be much moreattractive if both teams were in playoff contention than if one or theother was not in contention. Options could be sold that would enable tobuyer to obtain a tickets if a particular combination events occurredthat would make attending the game more attractive to the buyer. Forexample, the buyer could indicate that s/he wishes to have an option toa ticket(s) for a Red Sox-Yankees game (optionally in a specificlocation) on a given date if both teams are in contention for theAmerican League East division title.

In an embodiment, the invention includes a method of electroniccommerce, comprising establishing a network-based on-line system forpurchase and sale of options to acquire tickets and travelaccommodations, such as airline tickets, to destinations for a givensporting events.

In a preferred embodiment, a system is provided for allowing user topurchase an option for a ticket to a playoff sporting event. Referringto FIG. 5, a flow chart 200 depicts the steps by which the system maypermit a buyer to buy an option. First, at a step 202, the user mayidentify an event. For example, the user may identify a team-round-gamecombination as a trigger event for the right to purchase a ticket,preferably at a price set at the time the option is purchased. Next, ata step 204, the system may enter the option bid into a location inmemory for bids for that event, e.g., team-round-game. Next, at a step208, the system may process the option bids. The identification, entryand ranking of bids may be accomplished by a variety of conventionaldata processing methods and systems. Many such systems are known and inuse, such as systems and methods for electronic auctions.

Referring to FIG. 6, in an embodiment, the ranking may consist of acomparison of bids for the available tickets to a team-round-game in anauction format, so that the user is informed whether, after submission,the bid is the highest current bid. Thus, in the flow chart 210 of FIG.6, at a step 212, an event can be identified. At a step 214, the bidscan be entered into the system. At a step 218, the bids can be comparedto the highest previous winning bid, designated MINWIN. It should berecognized that the winning bid might be a single bid (in the case of anoption to buy a ticket for a particular seat at a game) or the lowestpreviously winning bid from a set of bids (in the case of auctioning aset of seats to a particular event, e.g., team-round-game). If at thestep 218 it is determined that the current bid is lower or equal to theprevious minimum winning bid, then at a step 222 the bid is identifiedas unsuccessful, and a message is sent to the user at a step 224informing the user of the same. If at the step 218 the bid is determinedto exceed the previous minimum winning bid, then at a step 220 theMINWIN variable is increased to equal the new bid, and at a step 228 theuser is informed that the bid is a valid bid. At the step 228 or thestep 224, processing of the particular bid is complete.

It should be understood that an auction of options is only one possibleformat. For example, an acceptable option price could be predetermined,so that an option is purchased simply by paying the asking price.Alternatively, the option price could be determined based on a formula,such as one that includes as factors various components that determinethe value of the certainty of having a ticket to the game oraccommodations related thereto, such as the number of tickets alreadysold, the attractiveness of the teams involved, the likelihood (e.g.,the odds) that a given team will make it to the particular game, etc.The systems and methods disclosed herein offer complete flexibility asto the pricing of options and the ranking or acceptance of bids toacquire options.

It should be understood that a variety of different purchasing systemscan be used for the options and futures markets disclosed herein. Forexample, an initial sale of options could occur by auction, with apredetermined closing time. The auction could occur in a single day, anhour, or over a period of months. Alternatively, available options andfutures could be sold in a series of auctions over time. In anembodiment, rather being sold in an auction, the options and futures aresimply sold for predetermined prices. Once the options and futures areinitially allocated, they could be bought or sold in an after-marketsupported by the systems and methods disclosed herein.

An exemplary data structure for the database 114 used to store optionpurchase information is depicted in FIG. 7. It should be understood thata wide variety of data structures and database tools could be used inaccordance with the principles of this disclosure. In an embodiment, adatabase record 230 is depicted in schematic format. A record 230 mayinclude a plurality of elements 232, which may correspond to informationpertinent to a particular buyer 102 or to the buyer's bid to purchase anoption. Thus, the record 232 may include a name element 234, an addresselement 238, a sport element 240, an team element 242, a round element244, a game element 248, a bid element 250, a desired location element252, a home game element 254. The record 230 may also include a uniquebid identifier 258, which can be used to track the bid for processingpurposes.

The elements 232 could be stored together and associated with aparticular bid, or the elements 232 could be stored at diverse locationsin memory and retrieved at runtime for processing. Depending on thenature of the options that are to be sold, different records may need tobe retrieved. For example, if options for an NBA playoff game are to besold, then an option would need to specify the buyer's team and thedesired round of the playoffs, and, optionally, a restriction ondistance to travel. In that case, processing would require access to theteam field 242, the round field 244, and the game field 248. If only ahome game is desired, then the home field 254 could be used.

Referring to FIG. 8, a register 260 is depicted in schematic format fortracking bids to options that are associated with a particular event.The register 260 should be understood as one of many conventionalpossible formats for storing information and could be implemented usinga variety of conventional database programs and tools. In an embodimentof a register 260, if the triggering event for an option is theexistence of a team-round-game (i.e., the presence of a particular teamin a particular game of a particular round of playoffs, such as the NBAplayoffs), then each possible team-round-game may be assigned a column262 in the register 260. Each team-round-game may have a uniqueidentifier 278, which may be stored at the head of the column 262 forthat team-round-game. The register 260 may further include a pluralityof rows 264. The rows may correspond to available options, e.g., ticketsor accommodations, for that team round game. To continue theillustration, each ticket can be assigned a unique ticket identifier280, corresponding to a ticket of the identified game in the identifiedround. The register 260 may be used to register and track bids. Thus, ifa bid has been entered by a buyer 102, then the bid identifier, bidamount, and any other desired information about the bid can be stored inthe register 260. For example, if a first bid is entered for an optionto a team-round-game N, the bid can be stored in a register location 268in the column for team-round-game N and the row for the first ticket. Asadditional bids are entered, additional rows in the column may befilled. Until the number of bids equals the number of available tickets,an entry 270 such as “NO BID” or the like can be included in theregister. Once a bid exists for each of the available tickets, a varietyof scenarios are possible. In cases where the options are sold atauction, the bids can be entered in descending order of the BID AMOUNTvariable, so that the BID AMOUNT for the last bid in a column for ateam-round-game is the minimum amount that must be exceeded for the nextbid to be eligible to win the auction for the option, or MINWIN 274. Theregister can thus be used to track bids until the auction is closed, atwhich time all buyers with bids still appearing on the register willhave purchased options for the particular team-round-game.

The register 260 can also be used in cases where options are sold at afixed price. Rather than using a MINWIN variable, the bids can be storedin rows until all options are accounted for. In this case, the BIDAMOUNT variable would not be necessary.

The register could also be used to establish a minimum price in theauction scenario, so that a bid is not registered unless it exceeds apreviously established MINWIN amount. Different registers could be usedto embody different allocation schemes, such as those involving homegames at specific locations, games appearing within a particular span ofdates, and the like.

The systems and methods disclosed herein may further provide buyers totrade or resell options that are purchased through the host. Thus, thehost may serve as a secondary market for buying and selling the optionsby third parties.

It should be understood that local, state and other legal and regulatoryrequirements, to such as anti-scalping regulations, may restrict certaintypes of transactions in sporting event tickets. Accordingly, thesystems and methods disclosed herein are intended to provide the hostwith flexibility as to the nature of the options provided, the rules forallocation of options, and rules regarding availability of resale. Forexample, the host could require the buyer 102 to agree not to resell theoption, or the host could limit the price at which the buyer couldresell the option, such as to the same price the buyer paid for theoption.

Referring to FIG. 9, the benefits of the methods and systems disclosedherein to participants in markets associated with sporting events can beobserved by reference to a schematic diagram 282. Upon the occurrence ofan contingency event 284, such as presence of a team in a particulargame of a particular round of the playoffs, or the like, a set ofcontingent needs are set in motion. First, a ticket 288 for the event isneeded, as disclosed above. However, once the ticket has been secured(or simultaneously with securing the ticket) a need emerges for a widerange of other goods and services. Thus, a need may exist fortransportation from a transportation provider 290, such as an airline,travel agent, charter air services, bus line, train line, or the like,all of which will be needed to get the buyer 102 to the event 284. Aneed may exist for dining services from a dining services provider 292,such as a restaurant or caterer. Thus, the provider 292 could providereservations or catering services. A need emerges for accommodationsfrom an accommodations provider, such as a hotel 294, motel, bed andbreakfast, or other provider of accommodations. A need emerges for arental car from a rental car agency 298 in the locale of the event. Aneed emerges for tickets to local attractions 300. A need emerges forcertain particular goods 304, such as printed T-shirts memorializing theevent and other souvenirs and mementos of the event. A range of otherservices can also be predicted to be needed, such as retail shopping andthe like. Thus, upon occurrence of the contingency, each of theproviders can identify a need.

By providing options or futures based on the triggering in advance, themethods and systems disclosed herein permit all of the participants,whether local businesses or national providers of goods and services, toplan well in advance of the event, rather than attempting to put inplace plans in the short time between the emergence of the contingencyand the actual event. Providers can also identify packages of goods andservices that can be sold along with the tickets. Thus, not only optionsand futures to purchase tickets, but options and futures to purchasepackages of other goods and services can be purchased, sold, traded andotherwise supported by the systems and methods disclosed herein. Forexample, a buyer 102 could purchase an option to attend the Super Bowl,stay in a Marriott Hotel in the city hosting the game, fly on a charterairline from the buyer's home city to the game city, and have dinnerreservations at a leading restaurant in the city, all contingent on thebuyer's team being present in the game. A variety of differentcombinations could be made available as packages, or the individualgoods and services could be provided as separate options or futurescontracts, so that the buyer 102 can choose which goods and services hewishes to commit to purchase, or wishes to have available to purchase,if his or her team appears in the designated event.

Once a market is established for options and futures to purchase goodsand services the need for which is contingent upon the occurrence of asporting event with a particular team (or other contingency), a varietyof other benefits are available. Among other things, the host or theproviders could then target advertising for related goods and servicesto the purchasers of the options. Thus, the market, once established,could support the delivery or a range of goods and services related tothe entire locale of the sporting event, not just the event itself.Also, the purchasers would readily be identified as loyal fans of aparticular team, which would permit additional targeting ofadvertisements for related goods and services.

If the host wishes to provide options at a predetermined price, ratherthan at auction, initial pricing of options and futures that arecontingent on the existence of a particular sporting event havingcertain characteristics can be based in part on the odds that thesporting event (e.g., the identity of the participants) will occur. Formany sports, the odds for or against a team appearing in a particularevent can be calculated by various means known in the art. These oddscan constitute a probabilistic factor that can be considered indetermining an appropriate option price.

By way of example, and not limitation, a host can determine that acertain ticket for the Super Bowl is worth a given amount, say $5,000.Since a buyer could assure obtaining the ticket by purchasing optionsfor tickets for all of the teams in one of the conferences, the sumtotal of the prices for all options for that conference cannot exceed$5,000. However, certain teams are much more likely to make it to thegame. For example, if the odds against the New York Jets making theSuper Bowl are 4-1, and the odds against the Indianapolis Colts makingthe Super Bowl are 12-1, then an option to purchase a ticket if the Jetsare in the Super Bowl should initially cost about three times as much,because the probability of a favorable outcome is three times higher. Anappropriate initial pricing formula would satisfy the constraint thatthe sum of the price for all options be less than or equal to thecertain price for the game:P1+P2+ . . . , +Pn=CERTAIN PRICE

and the constraint that the ratio of an individual option price to thetotal price be inversely proportional to the odds against that teammaking it to the event:P1 CERTAIN PRICE/ODDS AGAINST

Of course, actual option prices could be much higher, reflectingindividual evaluations of the value of a ticket if a particular team ispresent.

While the foregoing embodiment depicts establishment of options andfutures to purchase tickets and other goods and services related tosporting events, it should be understood that many other contingentevents may be made the basis of options and futures.

In an embodiment, the contingent event may be defined by party seekingan option or futures contract. That is, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may establish a marketplace in which a person seekingan options or futures contract may define and post a request, such as ona host Internet site, including a contingency event, a desired good orservice the desire for which is dependent on the contingency and anoffer or bid for an option or futures contract to acquire the goods orservices if the contingency event occurs. Potential providers of thegoods, services, or other items identified in the request could thenrespond by accepting the request or by offering a different price.Similarly, providers of goods and services could identify and postoffers, such as on an Internet site, including a contingency event, agood, service, or other item the supply or demand for which is dependenton the contingency event, and the price at which the seller is willingto enter into a provide the good, service or other item at apredetermined price. Pricing of the option could be varied to provide arange of option prices to obtain a range of goods or services at a rangeof prices. Thus, a general marketplace can be established for permittingusers, including buyers and sellers, to define and negotiate contingencyevent-based options and futures contracts.

Also, once systems and methods are established whereby an option orfuture may be defined, offered and sold, the same systems and methodscan be used as a secondary marketplace for the options or futures, aswell as for the underlying goods, services, information and other itemsto which the options and futures relate. An option or futures contractfor a contingent event ticket would have a different value, depending onthe probability of the contingent event's actually occurring. Forexample, if a particular team loses a game, then the probability of thatteam's making the playoffs is reduced, thus reducing the value of theoption or futures contract for a ticket to that game involving thatteam. As the values diminish, optionholders may be willing to sell theoptions to recover some of the original purchase price. Similarly,others may be willing to buy at a lower price. Thus, a marketplace canbe established where purchasers and sellers trade in options that arebased on contingent events. Trading can be expected in any case wherethere are marketplace events that change the value of options; i.e.,events that change the likelihood of a contingency emerging. Wherecontingencies emerge after a chain of many related marketplace events(such as the progression of a sports season), an active marketplace canbe established for the trading of options and futures contracts based onthe events.

Once a marketplace is established, it is possible to establish anotherlevel of options, futures or other derivative securities. Thus, for eachtype of options or futures contract described herein, there can existstill another class of options and futures contracts to acquire theoptions or futures. Thus, while there may only be a fixed number ofavailable tickets, and only a fixed number of options can actuallyresult in delivery of the ticket, a far larger number of individuals maypurchase and sell options than can actually provide or take delivery onthe tickets. Individuals who have a delivery obligation, but cannotultimately deliver tickets, will be required to “cover,” by paying thepurchasers the value of the promised options (as measured, for example,by the trading price of an option or futures contract as of a fixeddate). Thus, as in trading markets for commodities, many more optionsand futures are traded than underlying commodities are delivered.Additional levels of “options on options” could be envisioned and areencompassed by the present disclosure.

A wide variety of possible contingent event-based options and futures,related secondary markets, and options on options can be enabled bysystems and methods disclosed herein. The following examples areintended to illustrate some examples of contingent events on which suchoptions and markets can be based, but are by no means exhaustive. Otherembodiments evident to those of ordinary skill in the art are intendedto be encompassed by the present disclosure.

A contingency event may be any event that is expected to occur, but theoutcome of which is unpredictable.

In one embodiment of the invention, the contingency event is related toweather. It can be predicted that weather will be relevant to a widerange of goods, services, and activities, but the weather itself cannotbe predicted with a high range of long-term accuracy. Thus, a buyer 102could purchase an option or futures contract for delivery of aweather-dependent good or service, with the purchase contingent upon theoccurrence of a measurable weather event at a given time.Weather-dependent goods and services that could be made the subject ofweather-contingent options and futures contracts include, but are notlimited to air travel, skiing, weddings, parties, concerts, sportsevents, vacation packages, hotel reservations, all outdoor events andactivities, hiking, camping, golf, surfing, swimming, amusement parkattendance, and many others. Thus, for example, a purchaser couldpurchase an option to purchase a vacation package to a Carribean island,contingent on the absence of any hurricanes in the Atlantic ocean oneweek before the date of departure. Similarly, a skier could purchase anoption to have a hotel room and lift ticket at a given price, if thereis a predetermined minimum amount of snow on the selected mountain agiven number of days before the date of the ski trip. The options wouldallow buyers to purchase with diminished uncertainty, while sellerswould have advance notice of potential demand. As with sports eventoptions described above, the advance notice would permit planning,marketing of related goods and services, and, in some cases, the sale ofmultiple options for the same good or services. For example, manyindividuals are highly interested in bad weather. For example, a weatherexpert, newsperson, or weather buff might have a strong desire to havethe opportunity to observe a hurricane close hand, while a vacationermight have no desire to vacation during the same storm. Thus, an optionor futures contract for a travel package could be sold to each of them,with the former getting the package if a hurricane was identified asbeing within a given distance from the location at a given time, and thelatter getting the package otherwise. Similarly, many non-skiattractions have arising around ski resorts, such as outlet shopping,family entertainment complexes and the like. However, during the peakseason, price rise, and non-skiers typically avoid these locations. Ifthere is no snow, there is substantial unused capacity at a given time.In order to help fill the unused capacity, options and futures contractscan be established to permit one person (presumably a skier) to have ahotel room, dinner reservation, or the like if there is a predeterminedamount of snow and to permit another person (presumably a non-skier) tohave the same item (presumably at a “non-peak” price) if there is lessthan the predetermined amount of snow. In other words, the systems andmethods enable vendors to offer the same item to different individuals,depending on different tastes for weather-related goods and services.Weather related options and futures contracts would be particularlyeffective in booking off-peak times, such as early and late seasonskiing, golf, beach vacations, and the like. Thus, vendors couldidentify interested parties who would commit to purchase a package ofitems if the weather, as of a given date, is appropriate for theparticular activity. For example, a skier could commit to a ski packagein October or May, which would be contingent on the presence of snow.Knowing the skier might arrive, the vendor could target advertising fora host of related products and services, even if the skier doesn't endup purchasing the package.

In other embodiments, the contingent event may consist of a blending ofone or more contingencies, including any of the contingencies identifiedherein. Thus, for example, a skier might purchase an option to acquire ahotel room and lift ticket on a particular mountain in May, if there isadequate snow, and if the price is lower than a predetermined amount.

In other embodiments, the contingency may be the unavailability orlimited availability of a particular good or service. Thus, a user mightpurchase an option of futures contract to purchase a good, service, orother item if that item is sold out in the user's area, or if the priceof the good in that area exceeds a predetermined price. Such a contractcould identify a particular good or suite of goods of a given type.Examples might include popular toys, CDs, and other consumer items. Forexample, a buyer might purchase an option to acquire a particular item(or any of a group of items) offered by a major toy store, if the itemor one of the items is sold out on December 20 of a given year.Similarly, a buyer could purchase an option to purchase tickets to aparticular event, if the event is sold out. A buyer could purchase anoption to acquire services, if the market rate for the services exceedsa certain rate, or if there are no individuals offering the services ata given time. The services could be a wide range of services, such asprofessional services, contracting services, legal services, accountingservices, consulting services, plumbing services, development services,design services, engineering services and the like.

More generally, contingency events may include any events wheredifferent outcomes are possible, and where different purchasers arecapable of benefiting from the different outcomes. Thus, any goods orservices where buyer tastes vary depending on the outcome, such asweather, sporting events, performances, and the like.

In another embodiment, the contingency event may be the popularity of aparticular item. For example, television programs are rated according tonumber of households and percentage of viewing households for eachprogram. Those ratings reflect the popularity of a particular program.Whether a particular program has a particular popularity rating can be acontingency event upon which an option to purchase advertising time orspace is based. Similar options and futures can be established foradvertising in periodicals and books based on the circulation of thesame. Similar options and futures can be established for Internet space.Since demographic information is often made available, options andfutures can be established where the contingency event is theestablishment of a particular rating in a particular demographic. Thus,for example, an advertiser could purchase air time at a given price andtime if a particular television show has achieved an average of a twentypercent audience share among women aged twenty to thirty. As with otherembodiments, a secondary market can be established, with marketinformation arising each time ratings are announced, encouraging tradingof options based on the ratings. Also, secondary services and goods canbe targeted to particular advertisers, based on what they are seeking toadvertise.

The methods and systems established herein can also be used to establishoptions and futures for non-traditional goods and services, where afuture need is known and the buyer wishes to lock in the current price.Any goods or services can be covered, ranging from appliances, to homerepairs, to fixtures, to automobiles, to concert tickets, toautomobiles, to antiques, to collectibles, to used cars, to computers,to real estate, and many others.

In an embodiment, the contingent event may be defined by party seekingan option or futures contract. That is, the systems and methodsdisclosed herein may establish a marketplace in which a person seekingan options or futures contract may define and post a request, such as ona host Internet site, including a contingency event, a desired good orservice the desire for which is dependent on the contingency and anoffer or bid for an option or futures contract to acquire the goods orservices if the contingency event occurs. Potential providers of thegoods, services, or other items identified in the request could thenrespond by accepting the request or by offering a different price.Similarly, providers of goods and services could identify and postoffers, such as on an Internet site, including a contingency event, agood, service, or other item the supply or demand for which is dependenton the contingency event, and the price at which the seller is willingto enter into a provide the good, service or other item at apredetermined price. Pricing of the option could be varied to provide arange of option prices to obtain a range of goods or services at a rangeof prices. Thus, a general marketplace can be established for permittingusers, including buyers and sellers, to define and negotiate contingencyevent-based options and futures contracts.

Also, once systems and methods are established whereby an option orfuture may be defined, offered and sold, the same systems and methodscan be used as a secondary marketplace for the options or futures, aswell as for the underlying goods, services, information and other itemsto which the options and futures relate.

While the invention has been disclosed in connection with the preferredembodiments shown and described in detail, various modifications andimprovements thereon will become readily apparent to those skilled inthe art. Accordingly, the spirit and scope of the present invention isto be limited only by the following claims.

1. A method of electronic commerce, comprising establishing anetwork-based on-line system for purchase and sale of an option orfutures contract to acquire tickets and/or travel accommodation for acontingent event, which contract is exercisable upon the occurrence ofthe contingent event.